1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a wet chemical method of making silver ribbons, the silver ribbons, and applications for such ribbons in industrial and consumer products. The invention also relates to silver foams made from such ribbons.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional methods of making silver nanowires and nanorods require seed particles or high temperatures.
Separately, prior art transparent conductive films are conventionally made by depositing on a substrate a conductive metal oxide film, which is usually indium tin oxide (ITO). The use of ITO films is problematic both from cost and environmental standpoints. In many applications, ITO films are brittle and crack easily. Therefore the development of materials that match the transparency and conductivity displayed by ITO films are of commercial interest.
A standard method of imparting conductivity to a non-conductive material is through the incorporation of conductive particles as filler material. For high conductivity applications the filler material is predominantly silver-based in the form of spherical particles or flakes, and mixtures thereof. When the conductivity requirements are less stringent the filler material can include Ag-coated copper particles, Ag-coated aluminum particles, Ag-coated glass particles, as well as other conductive materials. In the case of Ag-coated aluminum particles and Ag-coated glass particles the base material is simply an inert (non-conductive) template on which the Ag is coated in order to form a conductive particle. While the copper base particle may enhance conductivity in Ag-coated copper particles, the chief limitation of using copper base particles is the lack of environmental stability of the copper. In all cases of Ag-coated particles the extra cost and weight of the core particle is incurred.